Ones to watch: The 10 rising film stars to know in 2019

Remember these faces: whether in Star Wars, the new Tarantino film, or Disney's latest live action ventures, Clarisse Loughrey thinks you'll be seeing a lot more of them in the year to come

While 2018 should probably be crowned the year of Timothée Chalamet and Letitia Wright, who both swiftly upgraded themselves from fresh faces to Hollywood’s new darlings, it’s hard to know for certain who will come out of 2019 as its breakout star. That said, here are 10 actors who you’ll be hearing much more about in the coming months, thanks to roles either in major tentpole films, highly anticipated television shows, and/or early awards favourites.

KiKi Layne

KiKik Layne (Getty Images)

Layne may have already made her mark stateside thanks to If Beale Street Could Talk’s earlier release date, but UK audiences have much to look forward to when Barry Jenkins’s exquisite take on the James Baldwin novel is finally released in cinemas. Playing a woman determined to prove her husband’s innocence and clear his name, Layne brings an openness to the role that lets her sensitivity, her pure heart, and her resilience rise to the surface. Next year also sees the 27-year-old, already a name in the Chicago theatre scene, star in Sundance Film Festival entry Native Son and in sci-fi thriller Captive State.

Thomasin McKenzie

Thomasin McKenzie (AFP/Getty Images)

The New Zealand actor is already a breakout talent thanks to this year’s Leave No Trace – directed by Debra Granik – where she played a teenager living in the wilderness with her PTSD-suffering father. Her performance was met with great acclaim, with critics praising her grounded, naturalistic approach. However, the 18-year-old’s star is only set to rise in 2019, thanks to several high-profile projects. She’ll appear alongside Timothée Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, and Robert Pattinson in The King, which adapts several of Shakespeare’s history plays into one film. She also has a role in Taika Waititi’s satirical Second World War comedy Jojo Rabbit, the western The True History of the Kelly Gang, and serial killer drama Lost Girls.

Shahadi Wright Joseph

Shahadi Wright Joseph (Getty Images)

Although Disney’s live-action remake of The Lion King may be oozing star power, thanks to the likes of Beyoncé and Donald Glover, there’s also room for new talent. Enter 13-year-old Joseph who, in 2019, will not only voice a young Nala, but will also feature in Jordan Peele’s highly anticipated horror Us. The actor first made a splash back in 2016, when she played Little Inez in NBC’s live production of Hairspray!.

Charlie Plummer

Charlie Plummer (Getty Images)

Plummer has already acquired a promising CV, having impressed critics with the vulnerability he brought to his role in Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, playing a 15-year-old who befriends an ailing racehorse, and having starred across from Christopher Plummer (no relation) and Michelle Williams in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World. The 19-year-old actor, hailing from Poughkeepsie, New York, currently has five projects in post-production, and will also star in Looking for Alaska, Hulu’s adaptation of the book by The Fault in Our Stars author John Green.

Maya Hawke

Maya Hawke (Getty Images)

If the 20-year-old’s features happen to look a little familiar, it’s because she’s the daughter of A-listers Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Maya making a name for herself on the small screen: she made her debut in the BBC’s adaptation of Little Women last year, and has a major role in the third season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, set for release in 2019. Having started out in the modelling industry, Hawke will have her transition into acting cemented with a small role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino, of course, is well-known for his work with Hawke’s mother, Thurman starring in 1994’s Pulp Fiction and two Kill Bill films.

Naomi Ackie

Naomi Ackie (Getty Images)

The Star Wars series has proven to be a powerful launchpad for fledgling actors, with the likes of Daisy Ridley and John Boyega now big names in their own right. Star Wars: Episode IX will introduce the world to 26-year-old Ackie, a British actor who made an appearance in Doctor Who, in the famous 2015 episode "Face the Raven", which featured the demise of Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman). Film fans may also know Ackie from her supporting role in 2016’s Lady Macbeth, a period drama about a woman trapped in a loveless marriage with an older man, for which she won the British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer.

Hunter Schafer

Hunter Schafer will star in HBO's drama 'Euphoria'

Schafer is already well-known as a model, artist, and trans activist, having been the youngest plaintiff on the 2016 lawsuit against North Carolina’s “bathroom bill”. However, the 19-year-old is set to make her acting debut with HBO’s next big teen drama, Euphoria. Also featuring Zendaya, Storm Reid, and Maude Apatow, the series will follow a group of high schoolers as they navigate sex, drugs, identity, trauma, social media, love, and friendship. It’s a conversation-starter of a show that’s bound to make stars out of its lesser-known cast members when it airs next year.

Natalia Reyes

Natalia Reyes (Netflix)

Already a name in her native Colombia, thanks to appearances in telenovela Lady, la vendedora de rosas and supernatural series Cumbia Ninja, Reyes attracted Hollywood’s attention with her role in Birds of Passage, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was selected as the Colombian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Academy Awards. Her magnetic presence in the film won over the executives at Paramount Pictures, who chose the 31-year-old to lead the upcoming Terminator movie, the sixth in the series and a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

Naomi Scott

Namoi Scott (Getty Images)

Apart from Will Smith playing Genie, the cast of Disney’s live-action Aladdin remake consists almost entirely of unknowns. Scott, however, will be familiar to anyone who caught last year’s Power Rangers remake, where she proved an amiable lead in the role of Kimberly Hart, AKA the Pink Ranger. The 25-year-old from London also has a string of Disney Channel projects to her name. Next year, however, will not only see her headline a major Disney musical, but also star alongside Kristen Stewart and Ella Balinska in the Charlie’s Angels reboot.

Jonathan Majors

Jonathan Majors (Alamy Stock Photo)

An actor slowly racking up indie hits, Majors will follow up roles in 2017’s Christian Bale-starring western Hostiles and this year’s crime drama White Boy Rick with a slate of buzzworthy projects, including The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a drama exploring how gentrification impacts identity and community that premieres at next year’s Sundance Film Festival. Majors is also set to share the screen with two of our other rising stars: he'll be seen alongside Plummer in the dystopian drama Gully, and opposite Layne in Captive State.